From August 12-19, there will be an info point at Brasserie Lorraine (Quartierstrasse 17, 3013 Bern). The info events at Brasserie Lorraine are also wheelchair accessible. We will try to organize translations on site. For sleeping places please send an email to nofides@immerda.ch.
Racist police violence in the Oury Jalloh case
Fri. Aug. 12, 2022 8 p.m. at Brasssäli, Quartiergasse 17, 3013 Bern (Wheelchair accessible)
17 years ago, the asylum seeker Oury Jalloh was brutally murdered in a solitary cell at the police station in Dessau.
What followed was an unbelievable story of protection of the perpetrators, cover-up and repression against the activists who demanded the investigation of the case.
Members of the „Initiative Oury Jalloh“ talk about their years of work, their campaign and their experiences with the institutions that use violence. The case shows exemplarily which functions police and justice take in our system, who is protected and which persons are affected by police violence and how the institutions try to protect themselves from criticism and the confrontation with their own violence.“
https://initiativeouryjalloh.wordpress.com/
A look at the militarization of the EU’s external borders.
Sat. Aug. 13, 2022, 2 p.m. at Brasssäli, Quartiergasse 17, 3013 Bern (Wheelchair accessible)
Alarm Phone / NoFrontex / AbolishFrontex
Europe is waging a war on migration. But what does this mean in reality? This input gives a look at the militarization of migration routes around the Mediterranean from the perspective of Alarm Phone and resistant alliances like NoFrontex and AbolishFrontex. A look at different routes towards europe shows that various strategies are being used. In the Aegean Sea, between Greece and Turkey, an increasingly publicly visible regime of violence has emerged in recent years in the form of pushbacks and associated with massive violence, carried out by the Greek coast guards with the support of Frontex and under the eyes of NATO. Systematic pushbacks are also taking place in the central Mediterranean between Libya and Italy. To this end, Europe is arming and equipping local militias under the guise of the Libyan coast guard. And in the western Mediterranean, cooperation with Morocco is intensifying – culminating recently in the massacre off Melilla. This development is linked to processes of militarization and a brutalization of the debate: Migration is seen as a military threat that is being countered with armaments in Europe and far beyond. Central to this is Frontex, the militarized border protection agency of the EU, in which Switzerland is also involved. Its liaison office is in Bern, at the Federal Office of Customs and Border Security. Border guards are dispatched from there, but information also flows there, for example, through Frontex’s Eurosur surveillance network, which uses drones, cameras, surveillance zeppelins, aircraft, and even its own satellites to collect data on migration movements and distribute its member states
Of Terrorism and Threats – who are the new antiterrorism laws targeting?
Sat. 13 August 2022, 5 p.m. at Brasssäli, Quartiergasse 17, 3013 Bern (Wheelchair accessible)
With „Fides“, the army and the police are rehearsing the scenario of a long-lasting „terrorist threat“. The military exercise is thus part of the rampant security mania. Anti-terrorism laws in the USA, in Western Europe and, more recently, in Switzerland are enabling the judiciary to take more and more measures to control and punish, and are expanding the surveillance state more and more seamlessly.
What is behind the discourse around „terrorism“ and „dangerous persons“? How did these terms come into being? Who is threatened by the new Swiss anti-terror laws? And what developments can be observed in other countries – such as the USA – where anti-terrorism laws have been in force for some time?
Military, Masculinity and Militancy
Sat. August 13, 2022, 8 p.m. at Brasssäli, Quartiergasse 17, 3013 Bern (Wheelchair accessible)
How have militarized masculinities emerged and how are they related to militarized societies and to nationalism? We will explore these questions together. More importantly, in a second step, we will reflect on how these toxic masculinities are reproduced in anti-authoritarian structures. How do they manifest themselves and what exactly involves a radical break with such masculinities? How do we get there?
Demonstration against police violence, militarization and surveillance
Gathering on Sunday, August 14 at 3:00 p.m. at the Schützenmatte.
„Balkan Route“: Racial Profiling and Police Violence against the Social Movement of Migration
Mon. 15. August 2022, 7 p.m. at Brasssäli, Quartiergasse 17, 3013 Bern (Wheelchair accessible)
„We are here because you were there“ Migration can be read as an everyday practice of re-appropriation. Against this social movement, Fortress Europe is closing itself off. The input offers an insight into the current situation on the so-called Balkan route. There, local border police and Frontex react to migrants with illegal, disenfranchising border violence. The starting point for the input is solidarity work on the ground to support the freedom of movement of all migrants.
Critical Mass (Velodemo)
Di. 16 August 2022, 7p.m. Thunplatz, Bern
We take to the streets on our bikes, rollerblades, scooters and other favorite vehicles. With the wind blowing in our hair, we bring life and maybe a bit of traffic chaos to the streets of the embassy district – and beyond, after all we are fast and agile.
New Police Law of the Canton of Bern
Wed. 17. August 2022, 7:30p.m. Cinema Reitschule, Bern
Lecture and discussion with the AntiRep Bern
“ Preventing danger“ is first and foremost the task of the police in Switzerland. Which tasks – outside of the investigation of criminal acts – this includes, how these may be implemented and which competences the police have as a result are regulated in the cantonal police laws. With the new police law of the canton of Bern, which came into force on January 1, 2020, these possibilities have once again been expanded.
What has changed with the new police law? What is the police allowed to do and what legal basis can they actually rely on in their actions? These are the questions addressed in this overview of the new Police Act.
Street Game: „robbers and cops“
Thu. 18 August 2022, 7 pm Falkenplatz
Bring fun gadgets for a dinamic eve